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A DMV sting to uncover people illegally using disabled placards started as in direct response to the NBC4 I-Team's report on the problem. Joel Grover reports for NBC4 News at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014. (Published Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014)

Updated at 7:37 PM PDT on Wednesday, Aug 27, 2014

In a gesture intended to put parking cheaters on notice, DMV agents ticketed dozens of drivers accused of using disabled placards to snag prime parking spaces, even though the placards were not issued to them or anyone in the car.

The DMV sting operation comes in response to an NBC4 I-Team investigation which caught cheaters using placards belonging to friends and relatives, including a child, a deceased relative and a disabled sibling, in two different parts of the Los Angeles area.

"We’re hoping that more and more people will be thinking twice about using that placard in an illegal manner," said DMV Deputy Chief Vito Scattaglia, who added that the sting is meant as a deterrent to would-be "parking cheaters."

It is a criminal misdemeanor in California to use someone else’s disabled placard if that person isn’t in the car. Violators face fines of $1,000 and up to six months in jail.

The DMV sting operation began near LA’s popular Runyon Canyon hiking area in Hollywood, where street parking is reserved for residents. Hikers have to park and walk a few blocks away, unless they have a disabled placard which allows them to park in restricted spaces.

Among the six hikers issued criminal citations at Runyon Canyon: a man using a placard registered to his disabled wife who wasn’t in the car, and a 26-year-old man using his mother’s Arizona placard to park.

In fact, LA Parking Enforcement officers told I-Team undercover producers they knew all about placards cheaters across the LA area, including in the downtown Fashion District and at Runyon Canyon. But they almost never issue citations for placard misuse, even though they have the power to do so.

LA Parking Enforcement issued over 2.6 million parking tickets last year, but only 86 of those were for the violation of placard misuse.